The Faraday Ghostbusters : And The Tower Of London
by DetectiveSky612
Summary: **COMPLETE STORY** October, 1886. Something strange happens above the Thames… Whom shall you write? This is basically a steampunk (Or "retrofuturistic" if you want a bigger word) rendition of Ghostbusters, with the basic ideas for this stemming from a MOCPages post I did of a small team of supernatural investigators - the "Faraday Ghostbusters"! Complete OC.
1. Chapter 1

October 26, 1886.

11:57 PM.

It had been, pretty much, a normal day for Joe. Walking over the London Tower Bridge, he hefted his pack a little higher. He was halfway over the bridge when he heard a strange noise. This being the middle of the night in a big city, it wasn't completely out of the ordinary. Except, it was coming from the Thames, when the moonlight clearly showed an absence of boats. Joe walked up to the edge of the bridge, looking out over the river.

"Hello?"

Again, the strange noise, but clearer this time. It sounded like a small fountain, like the kind Joe had heard of in Italy.

"Is anyone there?"

Fear started to consume Joe as the sound repeated itself, clearer than ever.

The last thing Joe saw of the thing was the sunken appearance, rising from the Thames, before turning and running, screaming.

-= The Faraday Ghostbusters =-

Richard asked the man the same question one last time.

"What was it that you saw?"

The man shook, cold sweat soaking further into his clothes.

"It... was... I dunno... Monster..."

Saying nothing else, the man quieted down from sobbing and shaking to just trembling. Simon led the man out of the room, trying to get him into some form of sensibility. Richard looked to Simon, who looked ecstatic.

"This is it! We can use your gear to try and take down this entity!"

Richard sighed, putting a hand to his forehead as he did so. "For what's probably not going to be the last time, Simon, I made that pack as a favour for Tesla. It's incredibly dangerous and not for use by anyone other than me or Tesla himself."

"Why's it so bad again?"

"Having the Mark I on your back without some form of insulation or grounding is comparable to being struck by lightning while standing on a pair of knives while being crucified. Would you like to try it?"

Simon then edged away from the pack and towards the wall of his and Richard's small workshop, running a hand through his ginger hair.

"That's what I thought."

"But this could be a whole new branch of science we're pioneering here! Just think of the possibility!"

Richard growled, rubbing his eyes with one hand. "Just… no. Ghosts don't exist. Face it."

-{TIME PASSES}-

Because of this, Richard still wondered what had made him decide to humour his friend and colleague in engineering, psychology, and a penchant for somewhat weird pastimes after they went to the tavern and… oh… right.

However, being stuck on the Tower Bridge at the middle of the night with a bachelor's degree in engineering, he couldn't really complain as he knew he didn't have a time machine or anything like that.

He massaged the bridge of his nose, starting to become sober once more, and hefted the pack higher up on his back. The diving suit he was wearing smelled like a wet dog corpse left in the gutters, but he also couldn't complain about that since he'd be deader than dead if he used the Mark I without a Faraday cage like this.

"The guy said it was about here," Simon said, becoming almost ecstatic as he waved around the Faraday Ambient Energy Detector, while the needle spun madly around the dial until it was at a fairly high setting.

"Remind me why I need this ratty old diving suit instead of a proper Faraday cage," Richard said, uninterested in spectres, spooks, or who said what.

"As drunk you said, 'thish shuit hazh lotsh a' metal... it'll make a damn good Faraday cagzh.' Besides, proper Faraday cages are heavy and impractical."

"THIS IS HEAVY AND IMPRACTICAL!"

"Well, then, let's make a proper Faraday cage suit when we get back, okay? Okay."

Simon's face lit up as the needle on the metre started inching up and they felt as if they were being watched.

"It's coming!"

Richard grunted, hefted the pack, and flicked a switch on the nozzle of the Faraday Elimination Apparatus, Mark I, removing the nozzle from the nape clip as he did so. A few cracks and snaps ripped as the high-voltage generator on Simon's back came to life, using its own energy and a flywheel controlled from the nozzle to start charging voltage in the Lancaster-Faraday Energy Beam Coil at the tip of the nozzle. He smirked as he heard the whizzing that meant his baby had come to life. He may not be so interested in the supernatural part of the experiments he and Mr. Simon Lancaster had conducted during their tenure at Oxford's London campus, but the engineering was something different altogether.

Simon's face fell flat when he saw the ghost appear from the surface of the Thames.

"Is it really only that big? I thought something that scared the living daylights out of Mr. Average Joe would have been bigger. Anyway, BLAST IT!"

"I'd be happy - to oblige!" Richard bit out as he let the energy in the Beam Coil vent towards the spectre, which had now reached a good head or so above Simon.

The raw electricity crackled through the air, making both scientists' hair stand on end, beelining (or would it be lightning-bolting?) towards the ghost.

The charged particles impacted the ghost, causing it to sway and shriek as it floated. The beam cut out, though, as Richard frantically pumped the flywheel lever.

"Screw the flywheel! RUN!" Richard said, speaking both scientists' minds as the ghost started to crackle with residual static charge.

The Tower Bridge left two scientists running, screaming, as one shot a stream of electricity at a ghost that was angry, and getting more so by the second.


	2. Chapter 2

Simon panted heavily as the ghost gave chase, leaving a small trail of water behind it, just barely visible in the moonlight. He glanced over to Richard, who was doing much the same, only slightly slower due to his pack. Richard shouted something at Simon, but the parapsychologist was too busy running for his life to listen. The ghost, or "drowned spirit", as Simon was more apt to call it, faded into thin air as the two scientists reached the Tower of London.

The night fell silent once more as the two huffed and puffed, the one with the pack more so than the one with the strange meter.

"We are NEVER," Richard said, panting, "Doing that," this time punching Simon lightly on the shoulder, "AGAIN."

"Agreed," puffed Simon.

A strange feeling passed over the two men as a slight breeze rippled by; almost as if they were being watched.

A loud, jarring scream echoed from the Tower of London (For reference, try something like Skull Kid's screaming from Majora's Mask), causing the scientists to clap their hands over their ears as their eardrums were nearly shredded by the oscillating noise. Simon and Richard turned and ran back to Oxford, screaming.

-{TIME PASSES}-

"You've got to be kidding me."

"We're sorry, Mr. Director, but suggesting this is a coincidential identical hallucination is stretching the laws of reality," Simon argued.

"There's no two ways about it! You two were clearly impaired at the time, so suggesting that this is science goes against every principle this university stands for!"

"But-" Richard tried to interject.

"But nothing! Your work is highly controversial and downright unscientific! You can consider yourselves dismissed from staff!"

And so, that was how, an hour later, Simon and Richard found themselves heading to Richard's workshop, lugging along anything from the university that was either theirs or valuable.

"We could do this kind of thing for a living," Simon said.

"Do what? Get kicked out of universities?"

"No, I mean investigate and catch supernatural entities."

"If that's true, then step 1 is to get some proper equipment."

"So, you're in?"

Richard sighed. "Yes…"

-{TIME PASSES}-

The two arrived at Richard's workshop, Richard rummaging in his pockets for the key. After what felt like hours, he found the key and opened the door for Simon.

Inside the small house, there was only one room, dominated by a workbench upon which were scattered numerous bits and pieces of machinery and clockwork. A double-sized bed sat in a loft accessed by ladder, covered with a small amount of dust as if the whole loft was forgotten.

Richard lifted the Faraday Pack off of the trolley he'd been moving it on. Lying it on its strapped side, he seized a crowbar from what would normally be a tool rack, except the tools were all scattered below the rack or on the floor, and he pried off the outer casing.

Simon exhaled in awe as he saw the complex-yet-simple generator inside. Richard gathered a few tools as he drew up some modifications and new equipment.

The generator was made up of a copper rod, attached to a flywheel on the thrower pump motor, in between a pair of rare-earth magnets. The magnet end of the generator was attached to the Beam Coil, where the high-voltage electricity produced would come out at a semi-controllable stream of lightning.

"Simon?" Richard said, holding up a rough design sketch so the parapsychologist could see it.

"Wrangling a ghost? With that?"

"It's better than the Mark I."

"If you say so…"

"I'll also draft up some other tools. In the meantime, you might want to grab a few Faraday cage suits. NOT from the gutter this time, OK?"

As Simon sighed and agreed, Richard turned back to his sketch, editing a few things, before grabbing a small pneumatic drill, pumping the pedal, and starting to work on the Mark I…

… Soon to become the Mark II.


	3. Chapter 3

"Are you sure this is the right place?" Richard asked as he walked up to the gatehouse of Windsor Castle. His Faraday Pack clanked as the tube-shaped glass thrower bumped against the electric generator and the air pump. A mere roll cage separated the more delicate elements from any concussive force.

"Yup. Royal charter, even. They want this ghost out. Badly," Simon flatlined as he looked over the controls on his Mark II's thrower. "Are you sure that these gadgets'll work? And that you couldn't put more stuff onto the handle?"

"Yes, and no," the engineer said. "The glass bit's basically an improved Beam Coil, but without the lightning and with state-of-the-art technology. They don't even have this in most science labs yet."

"Well, if you say so," Simon said, inspecting his thrower skeptically. "'Cause if I get chased off by some angry ghost-"

"Then use the Beam Coil secondary fold-out to pulverize the ghost and stun it until you can destroy it."

"Fold-out?"

"There's a catch on the left shoulder that activates a spring-loaded arm. Once it's deployed, it'll ready the Beam Coil, which you can then use by pressing that blue switch on the top," Richard said, indicating the corresponding button between a charge meter and power output meter.

"Right... Let's get to it, then," Simon deadpanned.

The duo walked up to the castle gate, the Detection, Elimination, And Research of Spectres logo (A stylized ghost in a tarnished-bronze-coloured gear, with a bolt of pink lightning going through the ghost) displayed on their left breasts, their right sleeves, and their right shins, the scientists themselves up to their necks in specialized suits, based off of those used in underwater expeditions - Flexible rubber, with a steel exoskeleton - to avoid electric shock, with the suits coloured grey and lime-green. Their Faraday Packs reached from the backs of their heads to their ankles, most of the heavy equipment within aligned with their spines and packed close to their backs to avoid balance problems.

Simon glanced to Richard, and reached up to the castle gate. He froze, however, as the great wooden door opened on its own with an ominous creaking sound, scaring both scientists and causing them to grab and pump their throwers a few times, just in case.

Looking back, Simon and Richard left the Long Walk, pulling out their Psychokinetic Energy Detection Wands as they entered the castle.

As the gate self-closed, a soft laughter could be heard, fading out as the latch clanked shut.

* * *

(Location Music: Pier 34 - LEGO Dimensions)

Simon and Richard glanced at each other, and agreed to split up. Now that they were inside the lavishly decorated halls of the castle, they could find the ghost faster and cover more ground by splitting up.

"But what if we find the ghost before we reunite?" Richard said.

"We run through the castle, screaming the other's name, and hope said other hears us before the ghost gets us," Simon replied.

"And if the ghost gets us first?"

"... I'd rather not think about that."

Richard nodded, then turned left, towards the Tower of Edward III. Simon glanced back, checked his hold on the controls of the thrower, then turned right, towards the apartment blocks.

* * *

Richard walked up the steps of the Tower, waving his Detection Wand about. He'd decided to move around the castle by going through the Tower of Edward, then check the Keep, then make his way to the Deanery and St. George's Chapel.

The PKE reading spiked a bit here and there, but nowhere specific and not above normal levels - At least, not from where Richard was. Richard reached the top of the tower, where the Sun shone overhead. The Detection Wand dial spiked a bit here and there, but nothing serious. Richard thought he felt a cool breeze when he started down the stairs to the Keep door, but he dismissed it. After all, it was only the wind...

... Right?

* * *

Simon wandered through the halls of the private apartment block, investigating some abnormal, yet weak PKE readings. According to the map of the castle Her Majesty Queen Victoria had provided him, the readings were coming from the direction of the State Apartments. He reached the end of the hallway, and turned left. The PKE Detection Wand meter started to climb, but Simon was unconcerned about the exact reading on the metre. His department was the scale of the PKE to street-standard levels. He walked further down the hallway, stopping short when the PKE Danger Light came on and the needle went to the far right edge of the scale, leaving Simon with one fist practically in his mouth for how much he was scared. He removed his fist from his face and flicked the glass casing on the Detection Wand.

The PKE Warning Light promptly turned off and the meter read 0 Adjusted PKE. Simon sighed in relief...

... and promptly tensed up at the sudden growl behind him. Curious, while still dreading the outcome of what was behind him, he turned around, slooooowly.

He then paled as he saw exactly _what_ was behind him.

* * *

Richard had just reached St. George's Chapel. He swept the PKE Wand around, noticing a steadily climbing APKE reading while the directional PKE spiked off to the back of the chapel. He looked around the chapel once more, trying to find the source, when Simon busted in from the east side.

"RICHAARD!"

"What the hell is it, Simon? This had better not be a prank."

"No... but... there..." Simon pointed to the east as a nuclear-green spectre flew through the wall, looking like every single contemporary image of Satan (Think the rock concert ghost from Ghostbusters 2016).

Richard blanched, and he quickly flipped the switch for the Beam Coil, folding out the arm and pumping the thrower pump.

"What the hell did you do to this thing, Simon?!"

"I just tried to stun it, but it just got angry!"

Richard face palmed. "Did you use the main trigger on the thrower, or the blue button on top?"

"The main trigger."

Richard merely sighed. "...You've got a lot to learn..."

Richard then continued to fire off Lightning Blasts, trying but failing to hit the ghost that hovered in front of the stained-glass window of the church. He then resorted to using the Beam Coil and Cathode Thrower as the ghost swerved from left to right, evading most of the shots in the process.

"Simon, are you going to help or not?!" Richard shouted, getting slightly angry at having to do this alone.

Simon responded by suddenly activating the Cathode Thrower, failing to control it and shredding the stained-glass window of the chapel.

"I hope that doesn't give us a one-way ticket to Hell or something," Richard said bluntly, finally hitting the ghost with enough of a Lightning Blast to stun it.

Simon and Richard looked at the ghost, each other, nodded, then looked back to the ghost as they activated one last Cathode Stream, causing the ghost to scream, struggle, then finally collapse as it was reduced to ectoplasm and destroyed.

Simon sighed in relief, while Richard simply holstered his Cathode Thrower and packed up the Beam Coil, and turned in a 360-degree arc, Detection Wand out and scanning.

"That's it. Just that one. Nothing else here," he said, stowing the meter as he turned to Simon.

"And YOU," he said, pushing Simon with one finger, "need to listen to instructions! If you'd only LISTENED when I gave you the walkthrough, then we wouldn't have had to do this together, and ONE EXPENSIVE, STAINED-GLASS WINDOW WOULD STILL BE TOGETHER!" Richard shouted with as much force as he could muster. "Come on. Let's head back to the workshop. You have training to do, and I have a job ad to make so if you turn out to be absolutely impossible, then I have someone to fall back onto if I can't deal with something alone."

Richard trudged towards the west side of the chapel, towards the doors and the gates out. "Oh, and for future reference, the back entrance is for clergy only."

Without another word, Richard left the chapel, Simon following a ways behind.


	4. Chapter 4

Richard's workshop was still in the sleepy, early-morning type of busy when Richard was jerked back awake by a knock at the door.

"Hmm...? Shut up, Simon..." was Richard's groggy reply as he got his bearings, which was sitting with his head down (Or at least, _used to be_ down) at the workbench on his prototype Mark III Faraday Pack, with integrated Detection Wand and a more powerful battery made using ionized lithium, hydrogen, and a small amount of a small, glowy, expensive rock he got from a few... less savoury places in London. He blinked a few times, and checked his watch (which he saw had stopped due to around twenty hours of neglect and cheap manufacturing). He rubbed his eyes, and realized what was going on when the door was knocked at again.

"Society for the Detection, Elimination, and Research of Spectres," Richard said, opening the door. He blinked a few times when he saw who awaited him, unable to determine whether he was hallucinating from lack of sleep or really seeing her at the door.

It was a woman, of all people, at the door. Not that he had a problem with that, but it was very uncommon in this day and age to see something like this. Her hair and eyes were both a deep brown, appearing almost black. She wore a simple black shirt and ankle-length skirt, and carried a revolver in a holster on one hip.

"How can I help you today?" he said, unsure of how to carry on the greeting.

"I'm here about the job listing." The woman spoke with a strange accent that Richard had heard previously on American migrants.

"Right! That job listing! Right, come in, come in!"

Richard beckoned the woman in, yawning, where they sat down on opposite sides of the workbench, the prototype Mark III between them.

"Okay," Richard said, grabbing a notepad from the desktop. "First question: Do you believe in ghosts?"

"I've seen many people with many beliefs. I'll just say if I can see it, it's damn well real."

"Oh-kayy." Richard wrote a few notes about this down on the notepad. He made to give it a heading, but paused. "I never caught your name."

"I never threw it out there," the woman said. "It's Laura. Laura MacTayb."

"Well," Richard continued, noting her name as the heading on his notepad, "Do you put faith in science?"

"I've never seen any omnipotent being come and save me from evil when I needed it most, so in return, I don't ask for any favours."

"That doesn't answer the question."

"Yes, I trust science."

"Thank you," Richard said as he noted this on his notepad. "How are you with lifting heavy weights?"

"Back in Colorado, I could lift a 20-pound keg of whiskey like it was a sack of potatoes."

More notes. "How well do you follow instructions?"

"I can speak and understand English. Whether I follow the instructions is for me to decide."

"They'll relate to jobs. And if the jobs don't get done, you don't get paid."

"To the letter."

More notes. "Thank you, Laura, and we'll consider you for the job. If you're selected, we'll get right back to you."

"I don't think you'll find anyone quite like me..."

"That much is certain."

* * *

-{1 WEEK LATER}-

Average Joe was on his way home from work, exactly a month since he saw that... thing...

Before that rabbit hole swallowed him, he held his head high and started across London Bridge, humming a merry tune in the dark.

A rattling breath reached his ears, but he pretended not to hear it.

He just continued walking, and opened his eyes as he reached the other end of the bridge.

... Eyes which revealed a small army of undead foot soldiers, staring at Joe in the dark, pikes ready, with the same unnatural glow the drowned demon had.

Joe saw no more as he fell into the blissful safety of unconsciousness, trying to ignore the heart-stopping fright and the primal fear.

* * *

"I'm so sorry that you had to go through this again, sir," Simon said, taking notes on the various apparitions Joe had seen.

Joe simply remained silent.

Simon sent Joe off, and turned around, starting to pace. Two large supernatural occurrences happening in the same place in the space of a month? It wasn't very likely, but it wasn't very unlikely either. Simon filed it away in the back of his head as Richard checked the mailbox.

"Bill for damage to one stained glass window... Rent for this place... Junk mail... Oooh, looky this! There's a job that came from an anonymous source. It says to meet at the Tower Bridge, at 3 PM today."

"That's kinda suspicious... You're planning to take it?"

"Of course. That bust in Windsor Castle wasn't going to sustain us forever."

"Right, right... And what about the girl?"

"She was the only one who applied. She's got the job."

"You sure she's the best?"

"She's better than you, at any rate."

"Don't remind me..."

* * *

One "You're Hired", one equipment fitting, and one long walk later, Simon, Richard, and Laura were standing on the Tower Bridge. People and buggies passed by them, the former giving them weird looks, the latter splashing puddles at them. The group were standing at the Tower Bridge for a full ten minutes before an all-black buggy pulled up and stopped beside them. A figure, dressed in an all-black suit, ushered them in.

"Who are you?" Richard said as the DEARS sat down and the carriage started to move.

"Suffice it to say," the man said through an alabaster mustache and beard, "I am your client."

Simon pulled a notepad and pencil from his pockets. "Well…" he said, "What kind of ghost is it? Is it a spectre? A demon? An undefined green ball? An intangible yet otherwise detected presence?"

The man in black thought for a moment, resting his hands on his walking cane. "At this point, I'd say it's a spectre."

Laura sniffed, looking out the window. "Whoever you are, you must be really freaking rich."

Richard, Simon and the man in black all looked at her. "How can you tell?" the man asked.

Laura pointed a thumb out the window. "I may be new to London and all, but even I know how expensive a mansion in the city centre is."

Simon and Richard did a double take as they saw the property gates pass by.

"Laura…" Richard said. "This isn't just any mansion."

Laura did a double take this time as she realized what that meant.

"You mean we're doing a bust in BUCKINGHAM PALACE?!"

The man in black nodded. "It's a matter of the utmost secrecy. If the general public learned their Queen was having problems with the supernatural…"

"It would cause general fear, a ripe environment for hopeful anarchists and revolutionaries to plant more fear and distrust in their Queen. After all, if she can't defend herself against a simple ghost, what could she possibly do for the country against a larger force, like France or Germany?" Richard finished.

"Well… yes," the man in black said as the carriage started to slow. "Exactly."

When the carriage stopped, the DEARS hopped out, and were escorted by a member of the Royal Guard to their audience with the Queen.

Once in the audience chamber, the DEARS sat and waited, finally met by a clearly-fretting Queen Victoria.

"Your Majesty," Richard said.

"Yes, greetings, DEARS."

"Dears?" Laura whispered to Simon.

"D-E-A-R-S. Society for the Detection, Elimination And Research of Spectres," Simon whispered back.

"Quiet, you two!" Richard barked. Both of the misbehaving parties got their act together. "Apologies, Your Majesty. We just had a new hire earlier today. We were told on our way here that you had a problematic apparition here in the Palace?"

"Quite," Queen Victoria said. "Its last appearance was around here at around ten this morning. I do hope you can get rid of it. Oh, and Richard?" the Queen said, attracting the attention of the engineer. "Give my regards to your father. God only knows I need more Cabinet ministers like him."

The engineer nodded, and turned and followed the rest of the DEARS into Buckingham Palace.

* * *

Hello there, DetectiveSky612 here!

I'm sorry that I haven't been able to upload more content. As it stands, I've had my hands full with reality, so I haven't been able to write and produce content as fast as I'd have liked. Sorry!


	5. Chapter 5

Simon, Richard, and Laura ran through the halls of Buckingham Palace, tracking their target with their PKE meters. They could hear the ghost, invisible, yet visibly two steps ahead of everything they did, ahead of every step they took.

"When will this thing stop?!" Laura huffed, keeping pace easily with the heavy Faraday Pack on her back.

"Considering that it's a ghost?" Simon replied. "About... two centuries or so."

After one particularly colourful display of vocabulary, Laura gave up on conversation, and simply hefted her thrower. The glass glinted in the light of the lanterns as the PKE meters' omnidirectional compasses suddenly turned off to their left, barely thirty seconds after Simon had spoke.

"Or..." the ginger said. "We wait for it to come to us. That works too, I guess."

The DEARS members said no more as they drew and pumped their throwers, charging the Faraday Packs for the encounter with the ghost.

The room they emerged in was more of a crossroads or a meeting- or tea-room than anything else. There appeared to be nothing inside, but the Detection Wands said otherwise. The DEARS stepped in, swinging their Faraday Pack throwers around, as if apprehensive about what they'd find inside.

As they lowered their guard, a green light coalesced in the centre of the room. It solidified, lengthening out into the shape of a hooded woman, beautiful yet mournful. As the throwers reached their holsters, the apparition looked to the team, saying nothing.

"I think it's less of a threat than Her Majesty made it out to be," Laura said.

[I think it's less of a threat than Her Majesty made it out to be,] the apparition repeated, mimicking the voice perfectly yet adding an ethereal echo to it.

Laura said no more, yet raised her thrower and pumped it.

"I'll take that as a "Let's tear this thing a new one," Richard said, stowing his Detection Wand and pumping his thrower as the ghost imitated him. Simon merely read his teammates' faces and pumped his thrower, eager for a fight. Laura smiled as she unloaded the Faraday Pack at the ghost, using both the Cathode Stream and the Tesla Beam Coil to their full effects. The other two joined in with their Cathode Beams, and soon, the spectre was cornered. It showed all the grace of a bull in a china shop, though, as it unhinged its jaw and spewed slime all over Simon.

Simon scowled at the apparition, showing it no mercy as he opened up on all cylinders, adding his Tesla Beam to the mix. Eventually, the DEARS managed to maneuver the ghost over a small bronze oil lamp, one made in the glory days of the Roman Empire. Richard added his Tesla Beam above the ghost, corralling it towards the lamp. When the apparition dove in for shelter, though, the DEARS lost control of their Mark IIs, accidentally blasting the lamp with the full force of a gigawatt and a half.

When the DEARS had stopped the onslaught, they inched closer to the lamp, jumping back when it suddenly jumped and fell off the shelf it had been perched on. The eerie green glow the bronze gave off from the inside was reined in by residual pink and blue lightning occasionally jumping from the lamp to the floor.

"I think it's stuck there," Laura said.

As if in response, the lamp jumped again.

"Man, that is one Cave of Wonders I don't want to open," Richard said.

"You'd better not. Judging from what it took just to get the ghost down, we don't want to see it when it's angry," Simon finished.

"Oh... Oh, that's a good one!" Laura said, turning to Richard. "Arabian Nights... It was a good book."

Richard looked at Laura, surprised. "You read?"

Laura smiled at the engineer. "Whenever I'm supposed to be sleeping."

Simon and Richard both blinked, turning to the woman. "Then..."/"How...?"

Laura cut them off before they could continue. "Copious amounts of coffee."

As the lamp jumped a third time, Richard reached into his pocket and withdrew a pair of chainmail gloves. Putting them on and attaching a pair of wires to his jumpsuit bracing, he picked up the sparking lamp and held it out, afraid to bring it too close to himself or to the rest of the DEARS.

Leaving the room, they went to find Her Majesty the Queen.

* * *

 **{TIME PASSES}**

* * *

Simon wandered through the library, picking up books for spectre research and historical sightings. At the end of the Historical Fiction and Mythology aisle, he found a curious title.

 **The Legend of the Creator**

Simon raised an eyebrow at the book's name before taking it off the shelf. Propping it up on other books he'd found, he took a look through the book.

His eyes widened.

The book said that there was an ultra powerful being - known as the "Destructor" - that was continually trying to break out of its otherworldly prison. The escape-attempt estimations that the book provided were also unnerving, as the latest escape attempt...

... was supposed to have happened _two days ago_.

Simon flipped through the rest of the book, trying to find any evidence disproving or damaging the book's stories, but nothing came up. The book was as well-backed-up as _On the Origin of Species_. Simon took the book under his arm to show the others.

He'd have to watch the news carefully.

* * *

Hello, everyone! DetectiveSky612 here!

I've been working on various things and phasing in and out of writing, video games, homework, et cetera. So props to this chapter of Faraday Ghostbusters, the first chapter I've posted in a while!


	6. Chapter 6

Simon flipped quickly through the newspaper, looking for evidence of the Destructor's escape attempt.

Nothing.

That was, until Richard came in and plopped a letter onto the workbench.

"Read that, Simon."

Simon picked up the letter, read through it a few times, and blanched. "This is..."

"What it is is a supernatural _explosion_! What could possibly be causing this?"

"I dunno... Do you have any ideas?"

"You're supposed to be the parapsychologist, Simon! I'd accept anything right now, wild speculation included!"

"Well... Now that you say that..." Simon scratched the back of his head, a big grin on his face.

Richard sighed. "What is it, Simon?"

Simon walked over to his desk, where he opened the copy of _the Legend of the Creator_ to his bookmark. "Have you ever heard of the Creator?"

"What, you mean God? What about him?"

"No, I mean The Creator. He was a deity who created the universe, apparently. Anyway, in his first few stages, he created a companion that soon turned against him."

"So... Lucifer?"

"You know what? I'm done trying to correct you. Use that analogy. So, the companion eventually turned against the Creator, and he was sealed in another dimension, a dark mirror of our own."

"So... Hell?"

"Yes. The entrance to the dimension still exists to this day. It's above the Tower of London."

"And?"

Simon turned back to Richard, taking a deep breath. "Satan's staging an invasion from Hell."

* * *

Simon, Richard, and Laura walked up to the Tower gates. The great stone edifice loomed above them, sparking as lightning struck the top. A faint greenish tinge surrounded the area, sending shivers down Simon's back (although that could have just been a flaw in the prototype Mark III he was wearing. Who knew?).

"Well," Richard said, opening the gate, "here goes nothing."

(Approach Music: Cumulus (Ft. Alessi Bros.) - Beasts of the Air/Marc Davies)

Ghostly pikemen and infantry started appearing almost as soon as the DEARS entered the compound. Richard used the Cathode Beam and Tesla Beam in tandem, destroying small groups of ghosts. Simon kept the apparitions at bay, strafing with the Cathode Ray as he fed the power from the Tesla Beam Projector into the ray tube. Laura simply razed huge swaths of spectres, occasionally picking off stragglers with magnesium bullets from her revolver.

Slowly but surely, the DEARS reached the Tower itself. Upon reaching the stairwell up, Laura, who was out of ammunition anyway, stowed her gun and ran up the stairs. Richard followed her, making great time for someone frantically trying to calculate the odds of their survival. Simon, who until now had been holding off the horde, broke off the beam and bolted, following his colleagues up to the top of the Tower of London.

The stairs were slippery, coated in some sort of ethereal matter, but even as the DEARS slipped every now and then, they raced up the steps, where the ghostly infantry bottlenecked and could not reach them.

* * *

As Simon, Richard, and Laura reached the top of the Tower, they encountered something they had not heard since they entered the compound.

Silence.

They stepped forward cautiously onto the square roof, revving their flywheels and checking their Detection Wands. They had nary advanced more than a few steps when the ground started rumbling, and a strange purple hurricane appeared in midair above the old gun emplacement - a portal! A great green demon, like a man with dragon's wings and talons, fell out of it and landed with a _thud_ on the old gun battery, before an iron staff followed it, tipped with a strange green rock. The demon picked itself up, surveying the landscape with its bloodred eyes.

The demon smiled when its eyes landed upon the DEARS, showing an additional, pointy pair of canines.

"Finally... Another soul..." it said, its voice weary, yet malicious.

It swept its blonde hair out of its eyes with a swish of its claws, its smile widening. "So this is what the Creator's swept up to defend his little playhouse?" The entity scoffed. "Prepare to meet your doom at the hands of Typhon, Mighty General of the First Great Invasion of Babylon, and Destructor of Worlds!"

(Battle Music: Gozer Battle - LEGO Dimensions)

Typhon backflipped from the centre of the battery over to a magazine of barrels against one of the higher merlons in the corners, then started strafing arcs of lightnings emanating from his staff at the DEARS in a very flashy manner.

While Simon panicked and Laura scrambled to find any remaining magnesium shots, Richard remained focussed on Typhon, as he had heard it said to never turn one's back on one's enemy. Thinking quickly about what must be in the barrels, Richard listened to the instinct of "point and shoot". Right as the Cathode Beam hit one of the kegs, Typhon leapt off of the stack as it exploded, landing with catlike grace on another stack of barrels on the opposite side of the rampart. Before Richard could raise his thrower, though, the magazine was blown out by none other than Simon, wielding the Mark III with practice, but not skill. Typhon backflipped off before the beam could connect and perched on a lower, mid-rampart merlon, graffitied long ago with depictions of a wizard wielding lightning and fire.

"Ooh... You've got some bite... You'll have to try harder to take me down, though!" he said.

Typhon raised his staff once more, this time sending a concentrated burst of lightning straight at Simon. The underdog parapsychologist deployed the Tesla Beam Coil, revving the flywheel to keep the Beam Coil running at highest power. After roughly ten seconds, all the lightning sparked back into its origins, blowing three fuses on the Mark III and zapping Typhon, causing the demon to drop his staff and the scientist to slide pack-down to the staircase.

Typhon coughed out a cloud of smoke, before picking his staff back up. "Oww... That was bad..."

He could say no more, however, as he was then hit by all three Cathode Beams, the combined electrical and nuclear power of the laserlike projections sending him into an involuntary seizure, similar to that of a TASER.

When the three beams died out, however, and the DEARS had to rev their flywheels once more, Typhon recovered from the fit, still perched on the merlon, and snarled at the three Ghostbusters, his red eyes flashing.

"When I'm done beating you to three inches of death, you will know the very PLATONIC MEANING OF PAIN!" the demon yelled, the rock on his staff glowing ever brighter.

The DEARS then had to pause as they heard rumbling. As they looked around, they saw its source: All the cannons that had remained on the roof of the Tower of London and weren't destroyed by the magazines were slowly pivoting towards them.

"Well, shit," Laura said as the cannons rotated into position.

"Well said," Richard added.

The three hit the deck as the cannons started volleying gouts of fire, which came within inches of their heads and Faraday Packs. Laura checked her revolver's chambers, and felt a sliver of hope and relief when she saw her last magnesium bullet in the next chamber.

As the second volley ended, she aimed at Typhon's chest and pulled the trigger. Typhon gasped as the magnesium flashed from his tunic, and Simon ran up to him, pointing his thrower towards his Mark III.

"You... are... DESTRUCTED!" Simon growled, before vanishing in a bright flash of light that enveloped him and Typhon.

When Richard could open his eyes again, Simon was gone without a body, not even one on the ground below; Laura was unconscious and bleeding from a couple wounds on her cheek and forehead; and Typhon was no longer perched on the merlon (which was little more than a pile of rubble) but rather flying above the arena.

"Little prick..." the demon said. "Who knew he had the gall to try and self-destruct me. Oh well... I hope he doesn't try that again."

Richard blinked. Simon was alive...?

"He's in the space between," Typhon said. "Just answering the question you were about to ask.

"Anyway, since I won our little duel, and we didn't agree on any terms beforehand, I get to choose your fates. For the girl..." Typhon waved his staff, and an acid-green aura surrounded Laura, before fading. "I'll spare her life... but she will come to hate that which she loves. If any human magicians try to meddle with that curse... Well, I'll leave that as a surprise. Won't it be fun? As for that self-destructor, I'll leave him flying around the in-between, Creator knows he needs it to simmer down..."

Richard stood up quickly, Mark II cracked in several places and sparking worryingly, and pointed the thrower at Typhon and pulled the trigger. A wild beam came out, and went straight towards Typhon, but when it came to actually doing damage, Typhon simply raised a hand and blocked it, yawning.

"That's quite enough of that," Typhon said, sending out a pulse of magic that destroyed the Mark II with a couple of sparks. "As for you... your fate is the hardest to decide... I know! I'll let you witness all of this. You will henceforth be unable to die, not until the other two have died. This way, you can watch their misery," Typhon said, and raised his staff.

Richard felt nothing more but searing pain, pain which brought him to the brink, pain which made him curl up into a ball. It faded after a while, leaving Richard to look up at Typhon, who was smiling. Richard felt something... _more_ inside his brain as he got back up, a dark look on his face. He raised the cracked, chipped thrower, and his eyes turned electric blue as his hair started to billow outwards, as if it was being blown from beneath by the wind. He shouted a feral battle cry as he pulled both triggers, lightning arcing through the pack and the jumpsuit, coalescing into a single great bolt, which struck Typhon, lifting him up, up, up to the portal, which closed as Typhon passed the event horizon and flew back up, screaming.

Richard sighed, looking up with newfound despair as the unnatural storm cleared, and any supernatural traces in the area disappeared. Checking the Detection Wand (Street-standard PKE), Richard limped over to Laura, who stirred as he approached.

"Richard?"

"Yes?"

"Where's Typhon?"

"Back where he came from."

Laura and Richard shared one last look, before making their way to the stairs down, at the top of which they met the Royal Guard. The Guard escorted them out of the compound, where both remaining members of the DEARS agreed to never return.

* * *

Oio boios! DetectiveSky612 here!

Thank you for reading to the finish of

 **The Faraday Ghostbusters : And the Tower of London**

If the ending seems like a bit of a let-down, please understand that this is **meant to tie into Dragonheart** _._ Richard and Laura's stories are continued there, and I'm planning to wrap up Simon's soon in another story of mine... No spoilers here!

Anyway, thank you for reading, and if you liked it, please let me know! It means a lot to me to hear from you people, who have a different perspective on my work. Please like, subscribe, and read more of my stories here on Fanfic Net!


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